


The Whole Night

by InsominiacArrest



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bachelor Auction, Charity Auctions, Cute, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-08-12 01:46:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7915696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsominiacArrest/pseuds/InsominiacArrest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith is recruited by his foster brother, Shiro, into doing a charity auction. Lance happens to win  bid on him, and makes the most of that night together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. He's Serious

Keith tugs at his bright red bow tie and feels an overwhelming sensation of regret in his gut.

He was in a suit, tailored, pinned and presented like a present all wrapped up for the parade. A long line of other volunteers surround him, chattering and exchanging stories on how the hell they got into this.

Keith ignores them, cringing at the noise and yelling from a podium and distant crowd. The rest of the volunteers stand in the dim shadows of the backstage, thick curtains as red as rouge lipstick shielding them from sight.

Keith stares at the floor with his lips turned downwards, he hears a familiar voice close by, “Shiro!” He calls out to a tall, solid figure.

Shiro turns around and blinks at him, obviously in a hurry to correct something or direct that as the coordinator of the event. He smiles easily and walked over with a straight back and curious eyes, “they told me you made it. I'm so glad.”  
  
Keith shook his head, “remind me again why I can’t go up there in jeans and a ‘don’t touch me shirt'.” He says grimly. “Or why you need me.”

Shiro gently pats him on the back, “it’s for a good cause. And we needed volunteers, not everyone will auction off their time for a night.”  
  
Keith sighs, “for good reason.”

Shiro shrugs and shakes his head, “the Veteran Foundation thanks you. We’ve already raised half our goal for PTSD treatment in support groups.”  
  
That shuts Keith up as he’s reminded this was real life, a goal, and not just him wasting his time in the abyss of weird college activities.

He sighs, “and the suit is just an added bonus.”

“It makes you marketable!” A girl behind him chirps and Keith can’t argue with that so much.

“You’re almost up,” Shiro informs him, and then someone calls Shiro’s name, his eyes dart to the back, “gotta go.”  
  
“Yeah.” Keith waves, “go do something good. See you.”

The person behind him taps him on the shoulder, “you’re up.” Keith takes a deep breath and creeps towards the curtain and bright lights of the stage.  
  
“This 5 foot 4 bachelor from Houston Texas who grew all over the country, his favorite location is the desert in the early morning. He does tiquando and rides motor bikes in his free time. A Sophomore at the university, he is majoring in aviation. He is also the younger brother of our events coordinator, please welcome, Keith Kogane.”

The crowd lets out an applause, with some people in the back whooping and one person whistling from the back, Keith rolls his eyes to the ceiling and walks out.

He doesn’t make any effort to sway his hips, smile, or look anything other than annoyed. Oh, he’d be auctioned off alright, but he wasn’t going to like it.

“We’ll start the bidding for the night at thirty dollars and raise from there, do I see thirty, I see thirty, do I see thirty-five, I see thirty-five…”

The numbers raise and Keith realizes he might be a prime candidate, he examines the bidders closely, some of them are random but there is one girl in cream lipstick and blue eyeliner that seem particularly interested. She raised the stakes every time and her lucid brown eyes focused on him without blinking.

She wasn’t bad, but someone should have told them he wasn’t interested in gender. Of course, it was only for a night, he wasn’t sleeping with them or anything.

The bid raises to $150 and Keith raises his eyebrows, that was a lot for one night out. A second paddle raises from the very back and Keith almost chokes on his tongue.

A familiar boy in a brown jacket steps out from the cluster of chairs and declares, “170.”

Keith and Lance make eye contact and Keith’s mouth falls open while Lance gives him a cheeky thumbs up. “What the hell.” He whispers under his breath.

“180.” The girl in light lipstick stands up as well, her posture stiff and precise.

“190.” Lance says lazily as he eyes her, she doesn’t give him a second look. “You know what, never mind." Lance announces, "$200.”

Keith stares at the ground, when did Lance have that type of money? He told the group personally that he had like seven other siblings his parents supported.

The woman finally tears her eyes away from Keith and Lance waves at her, they seem to share a very brief silent communication. She puts down her paddle.

“Sold! To the man in the brown jacket, one night with Keith Kogane. Remember to sign the checks out to the veterans foundation. All contributions help!”

Keith leaps off the stage in an unorthodox move and goes to talk to Lance with at least a lot of adjectives and maybe some colorful hand gestures.

Lance backs up, and several guests herd Keith back to the stage and behind the curtain. He ruminates on the recent development. He had a date. A date with Lance McClain.

He threads his fingers through his hair and tugs. Let no one say God didn’t punish you for setting Bobby Nelson’s hair on fire in the fourth grade. Because he did.

Keith waits for the ceremony to be over, they surpass their goal by around $127 dollars and Shiro and his team were cheering and opening champagne bottles before the night was over.

Keith crept out from behind the lipstick velvet curtains and jumps back to the ground, a few stragglers were wandering around the room and picking off the last of the buffet.

Keith didn’t think there’d be much hope, but it turned out Lance did appear to love loitering. He stood in the corner scavenging mini-corndogs.

“What the hell?” Keith calls from across the room and speed walks over, “what the hell Lance? You were telling the entire class yesterday that you would take my quiznak and ‘stuff it’ if I didn’t stop suggesting the test not be graded on a curve.”

“Okay, one, curves are my life in our dynamics seminar and _you_ have aced everything you’ve ever touched, so yeah. And two, I was doing you a favor bucko.” Lance says in his usual smug tone.

Keith raises his eyebrows and almost stumbles backwards, he mumbles something about ‘helping the charity, and yeah, thank you,’ “Though you didn’t have to choose me.” He finishes with a flourish.

Lance shakes his head, “a little bird told me you are as gay as space, if not more than space- which is pretty gay. I was saving your ass! Figuratively.”

Keith makes a face and bawls up his fists, he can feel his cheeks practically glowing red in the dark, “it was just a date, I’m not a child Lance, I would have gone on perfectly platonic date with her.”  
  
Lance wraps his long arm around Keith’s shoulder. “Whatever. This is gonna be like ten times better.”  
  
Keith blinks and he eyes Lance, “you’re not really going to take me out.

“I am.”  
  
“Really?”

“Uh-huh. See you on the 26th!” Lance cheers and starts to walk away, waving his hand in the air and not looking back. Keith’s mouth was hanging open again. Lance was serious.


	2. Is This How it's Supposed to Feel

Keith didn’t really know what to do with himself for the next few days. He still had papers and exams to do, and a headache on Thursday that almost sent him into the Shadow Realm. But Friday, Friday was something else.

Friday night seemed like the most bizarre concept, something the Twilight Zone could make up to made audiences gasp. He had a class with Lance, Lance declared him the ultimate rivalry in said class. And now he had a date.

He makes it clear to Shiro that this was an unfortunate turn of events. “I hate this.”  
  
“Keith, I’m out with Allura.” Shiro says gently over the phone as Keith waits, two hours to go.

“If he takes me to that lake on 29th st makeout whatever point I’m throwing myself into the sun.”  
  
“Keith, yes, okay, however, Allura and I-”  
  
“Anniversary, yes. But hear me out: faking my own death.”  
  
“Goodnight Keith.” Shiro says a few more conciliatory words and then ends up forcefully saying goodbye on him like the polite patron shooing away a telemarketer.

Keith hangs up his phone and sighs into his hands, he was alone in this. He wanders to his bedroom to dig through his closet for his old 2007 deadmau5 t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. Both had exactly three holes in them.

He at least brushes his teeth and grabs his wallet as he continues to wait. He could only imagine where Lance wanted to take him, what he mostly knew about the boy was from his boasting in class and Hunk- a lab partner last semester.

He used to be on the diving team, he had a terrible band called ‘Ice Ice Baby’ - used supposedly to get ‘the ladies, and some gentlemen,’ he once ate 15 hot pockets in a row. And now he wanted to Keith out on a date for $200 dollars. 

Keith heard the doorbell ring exactly at three pm, he jumps, but takes his time getting to the door.

Lance stood at the entrance with a wide smile on his lips that Keith couldn’t tell if it was ironic or not. He wore a light blue button up and neatly pressed black slacks, Keith would be impressed if he wasn’t trying to burn a hole in the ceiling with his gaze.

He didn’t want to look at Lance McClain at that moment.

“Here!” Lance’s wide smile translates to a full bouquet being thrust into his hands, Keith nearly drops them in surprise.

“You got me flowers.” He says dumbfounded as he stares at the array.

“I know, right?” Lance leans on the door and seemed to study Keith, “I’m the suavest player in the game, see.”  
  
Keith nearly drops them from that sentence alone, but they smell of baby’s breath and little white daisies with blue columbines. He goes inside and puts in a novelty tweedy bird pitcher he got from a thrift shop drunk one night.

“Okay,” he turns around and places his hands across his chest, “where did you want to go at three in the afternoon?” 

Lance raises his eyebrows up and down, “you’ll see. Besides,” he shepherds Keith out the door, “I have an entire night, we’ll make the most of it.”

Lance babbles to him on the way down, about their class and the test they just took, and how much he didn’t like umbrellas for some reason. They looked silly. 

He walks out onto the campus and to the other end of the school, Keith hums when he realizes where they are going.

“The botanical gardens?” Their university happened to have one tucked away by the lake and cramped between the chemistry and historical collections buildings. 

“Yeah! No one really goes into them unless they’re on the tour freshman year, so they just forget they’re here.”

Keith frowns, he would like to dispute that point, but he really hadn't gone to the gardens since last year.

He sighs and lets himself be led, “anyway, I’ve told you about my roommates love for puking near my bed and the number of flip-cup tournaments I've won, how about you?”  
  
“Uh, we’re not up to that level yet of telling you where I puke. Maybe on the way back.”  
  
“No,” Lance puts his hands behind his head, “what are you about, who is Keith Kogane, besides mysterious and pouty.”  
  
Keith huffs and points forward, “nope. Actually, that’s all there is to me, pouting.”

“Awe, come on.”  
  
“Here, we’re here.” Keith points at the building.

Lance examines him one more time and they pay the small fee to get into the series of greenhouses.

Lance waves exuberantly at the desk person, “Pidge! Hell yeah, I hoped you were working today.”  
  
A small girl with hair looking like a puff of scraggly bird nest looked up at them, she pushes her glasses back onto her nose, “ah, right, the famous date I was hearing about.”  
  
Lance nods and leans on the desk, “I told you you should have gone to the auction.”  
  
“Pass.” She says while looking back down at the text book on her desk.

Keith clears his throat and Lance turns back around, “Keith, this is Pidge- computer science and botany major. Total geek, take apart your watch in under minute, terrible hygiene,

"Lance." Pidge warns.

"You should totally help me convince her to enter robot rumbles.” Lance says excitedly as he takes off his jacket in preparation to enter the warm rooms.  
  
“I’m not entering rover into anything other than a beauty contest. Since he’s a work of art.”  
  
“Yeah, yeah.” Lance hand waves that away and hangs their jackets in the cubies in the lobby.

Keith looks around curiously, “this was your ideal date?”

“What? You haven’t seen anything yet, this is like the beginning of the hoagie sandwich. You have to wait for the surprises to come next.”  
  
“What kind of sandwiches are you eating?” Keith was mystified.

“It’s a metaphor. Come on,” He takes him by the wrist and guides him into the humid air of the gardens.

They had four rooms: the ferns, succulents/cactus, water plants and what appeared to be a very small rain forest.

Lance guides him around, “okay, this is all what I’ve heard from Pidge, so stop me when it sounds wrong.”

  
“If you say soylent green is people, I swear.”  
  
“Soylent green _is_ people,” Lance says dramatically and then laughs, it’s somewhat a good sound. “This is a fern.” He points to the closest leafy growth, “This is another fern. And another, but bigger. Ferne-er. This is the alpha fern, it’s the largest and has a red flower.”  
  
“And this one?” Keith asks sarcastically as he points to a small lime green one.

“Fern-Zeigler. Looks like professor Ziegler and spits on his students, very unfortunate.”  
  
“Oh my God.” Keith lets out a bark of a laugh and Lance beams.

Lance continues to name the plants and give him various stories to them and making up plant facts about when they seduce other lady plants and so on.

Keith touches a few of the broad leaves and finds a type of peace to the spritzing water and empty little walkways, “I should come here more often.” He asserts without thinking.

Lance immediately turns and lights up, “Yes! Look at that, I'm a great influence, this place is the best.”  
  
“Not so bad.” Keith corrects and Lance bounces on the balls of his feet.

“Come on,” he gestures, “you’ll like this one.”  
  
They make their way to a more arid room and Lance presents him with the cactus, “ta-da, Mr. Desert-in-the-morning-is-my-favorite-place,” Lance snorts, “super cheesy by the way.”  
  
Keith shakes his head, “they forced me to name something, I said gas station on 25th as well but that said that was _not_ romantic.”  
  
“Gas station, of course, that’s where I should have known to take you.” Lance says while hitting himself in the forehead gently.

Keith leans down and examines the succulents and little blooming cacti with orange and pink tops. “These ones are you,” Lance says as he makes eye contact with him, “prickly.”

“Prickly?”  
  
“Prickly, but also,” Lance gives a mischievous grin, “small.”

Keith crosses his arms across his chest, “Anyone is short next to you, I’m average height.”  
  
“Suuure,” Lance teases him and puts an arm around his shoulders.

Keith points to a flower in bloom, “well, this ones you: will open up for anyone.”

Lance shakes his head and gasps jokingly, “is that an accusation against my virtue. I keep my legs closed, thank you.”  
  
“No,” Keith blinks as he frowns, “I was saying you’re very open. I don’t think you’re sleeping with anyone.” Keith says as he tries to explain himself in short bits.

Lance hangs his head, “that’s even worse!”

Keith cracks a smile and they continue to peruse the end of the walk: the small trees and the last of the blooming tropical flowers. Lance bends down and picks up a flower that fell to the floor, he puts it in his buttonhole, Keith nods at it.

“You may be presentable yet.”  
  
“Right. Mr. Sweatpants and holes in his collar.”

"It's a look."

Lance shakes his head and they make their way out of the botanical garden, Pidge waves at them and tells them to come back or not, whichever. As well as tries to explain code to them to help her with her last part of her project.

“The loops aren’t working!” Pidge explains.

“I’m on a $200 dollar date Pidge, _I'm_   _busy_.” Lance stresses and Pidge rolls her eyes and grumbles about C-language.

Keith watches Lance’s face, he chews on the words before he spits them out when they get outside, “why’d you do it? The bid I mean.”  
  
Lance shrugs, “you know.”  He turns and points at the city, “you hungry?” He was already walking down the sidewalk.  
  
Keith hunches his shoulder and follows him in short steps. It was night time at that point, around six as Lance takes them down the long streets of the small college town.

“Okay, but it was $200 bucks.” Keith didn’t let it go as they make their way to the downtown, lit by little fairy lights and lined by old fashioned benches that's cast iron curved at the feet.  
  
“Honestly?” Lance’s dark blue eyes glance at him, “I won a scratch lottery ticket and figured I should spend it on a good cause or something.

“A lottery ticket?” Keith examines him.

Lance winks, “you could say I'm very lucky.”

Keith shrugs, “well I guess if you’re gonna spend it on something...Shiro has been working up towards this for months, so yeah.”  
  
Lance smiles back at him, “and you don’t seem like the type to volunteer for this sort of thing.”

Keith smiles in return, curling it up at the edges to be somewhat coy, “I was bribed.”

"Alright, but you also get a free meal." Lance tugs him onward to a tucked away restaurant front, “tell me you haven’t been here.”  
  
Keith blinks around, “I haven’t been here.”

“Fantastic!” Lance pumps his fist in the air. It was a small pizzeria stuck in as a hole in the wall, the pizza’s lay on naked display on large cases and air smelled like dough and a hot oven.

The white tiles squeaked against his shoes, the walls were covered in pictures of celebrities and star systems. Cosmos Pizzeria.

“It’s star themed, right? Get it, with all the stars on the wall.” Lance explains as he points at Orion's belt next to a picture of Marilyn Monroe.  
  
“Oh,” Keith blinks at the framed actors and then chuckles to himself, “clever I guess.”  
  
“Okay, what do you want?” Lance says as he hops up to the counter.

Keith takes out his wallet, “I can get it.”  
  
“No way, my date, my treat.”  
  
“Do I have to arm wrestle you? I said I’ll pay- I don’t like debts to people.”  
  
Lance sticks his tongue out at him, “too late, I’m handing my money over. You're in debt. But we’re in college, so I promise, so is everyone is.”

A girl in a smock and a business like tone takes their orders, Keith manages to get his in, “artichokes and black olives.”  
  
Lance gives him a look and wrinkles his nose, “for real?”  
  
“Do they have lobster and filet mignon? I could have that instead.”  
  
Lance shakes his head, “you are a _mess_. I’ll have pineapple and chicken.”  
  
Keith knocks his elbow into Lance’s side, “pineapple? Now we have to fight.”  
  
Lance does end up paying to Keith’s chagrin and they get a seat at the back, Lance teases him continually about pizza toppings, and then proceeds to name star systems for him.

“Ooh, that’s the Andromeda galaxy, that’s our closest neighbor- totally gonna run into us in like a trillion years. Make a super galaxy. It’ll be sweet.”  
  
Keith eats his pizza thoughtfully, “so you _are_ astrophysics.”  
  
“Damn, don't I know it.” Lance says mildly. “Mostly inspired by Star Trek, homoerotic undertones and space being super fucking cool.

Keith smiles with all his teeth, “Alright, but here’s a question for you: favorite episode.”

“Trouble with Tribbles hands down.”

They continue to exchange ideas about Star Trek until Keith almost drops his pizza when Lance makes a joke about the appeal of Kirk and Spock ‘making a super galaxy of their own if you know what I mean.’

He may or may not have let out a laugh, but then Lance offered to feed him if he wasn’t going to hold onto his pizza properly. Keith declines the offer.

Lance finishes first and tells him, “welp, I’ve obviously won the pizza eating contest. You’re move.”  
  
Keith chokes down the rest of his pizza quickly.

“Okay.” He declares as he leaves the small inlaid restaurant. “Not so bad. I appreciate the night out.” Keith thinks about what he'll do when Lance has him at Keith's front door.  
  
“What?” Lance blinks, “the times not over. I bid for you fair and square for the whole night.”  
  
Keith blushes as he thinks of having him for the ‘whole night.’ “Was there...more you wanted to do?”

Lance winks, “Oh yeah.”  
  
Lance takes him to the liquor store and buys them some wine, by that time all the street lights are on and Keith can feel the hours ticking up until midnight.

Lance takes them to the park and opens the bottle, “okay, the game is: don’t let anyone see you drinking in the park like bums.”  
  
Keith snickers, “easy enough, hand it over.”  
  
They take turns sipping from Lance’s ‘romantic gesture’ of cheap wine and then Keith challenges him to race to the playground when his teeth are a little numb and Lance is hiccuping. This time Keith wins.

They pant next to the swing set and Keith pushes on Lance’s shoulder, “don't tell me the wine slowed you down.”

"Maybe I just like to watch the back of you?"

Keith rolls his eyes, "right. Sure."

Lance approaches the nearest swing set, “Okay, but someone can definitely swing higher than the other .” Lance declares, whites of eyes and teeth glowing in the silver sliver of the moon.

“Are we kids or something?”

Lance hops on, “yeah!”

Keith takes up the challenge and they position themselves on the tall play set, Keith still is breathless and his legs ache ever so slightly as he pumps them. Lance jumps off once and Keith laughs as he stumbles to his feet and barely stops himself from falling over. Lance returns to his swing and they slow down, their eyes meet as they ease to a stop.

“So,” Keith says quietly, “did you _want_ to win the bid?” The wine makes his head fuzzy and he stares at Lance’s broad hands hanging by his side.

Lance draws circles in the dirt in front of him as he sits on the swing, “I dunno dude.”  
  
“Come one.” Keith pushes him, “I had a good time.”  
  
“Had?”  
  
“Having.” He slurs ever so slightly.

“You had nice hair, and a cool bio. And I kinda think you’re hot in class and wanted to maybe see if I could get rid of that?”

“Get rid of it.” Keith pauses and becomes motionless on the swing.

“You know, tell myself to knock it off. Get over a crush.”  
  
Keith flushes and looks away, he steels himself and then turns back with a curving grin, “did it work?” He was mocking him somewhat, he could tell.

Lance shakes his head, “unfortunately, no. The ship is crash landing in the crisis zone. The simulator is broken, we're on fire...Maday, maday...”

Keith leans forward and brushes his lips up against Lance’s ever so slightly, “good.”  
  
He kisses him with the glow of the setting moon on his back and the shadows of the playground snaking between his shoes.

Keith wasn’t always sure how kisses should feel, sometimes the dry drag of teeth and unlucky nose collision, sometimes the wet smacks of inexperience and too much saliva. Sometimes a kiss was just a kiss as they tried to pry sensation that wasn’t there out of the other person.

This wasn’t that. Keith wasn’t sure he knew what kisses were supposed to feel like, but the tentative and purposeful kiss, with the glow of warmth that tingled through his whole body was new.

Keith overlaid his lips over Lance’s and felt the dip of his tongue and smooth tilt of his head to let him over so slightly in. It was the moment before a roller coaster drops or a bike flies down a large hill.

It made him want to quit his job, buy a commune and kiss this boy until the sun dies and the government shuts them down. 

Keith gets up so he can be closer to him, pushing him on the swing every so slightly. Lance almost falls off backwards and Keith catches him.

“Whoa there.” He smiles.

Lance gets up and pushes him against the playset, digging his back into the rungs of a ladder. The sensation is intense and he knows he wants to eat him whole.

Lance’s hands trace up and down his chest and Keith manages to get one hand under Lance's shirt and over her right pectoral.

He kisses him thoroughly until Lance is panting, tasting of wine and pizza dough and something salty as the ocean, then he kisses him some more.

“Hey! What are you kids doing, the park is closed.” Lance and Keith pause and their eyes go wide, “no drugs deals on my premise tonight!”  
  
Lance grabs Keith’s hand and starts to run, they bound across the open field and into the foliage before breaking out back into the brightly lit streets.

Keith was laughing like his lungs might give out, and holding his sides, “oh my God.” Lance joined him and they glowed in the aftereffect of cheap liquor and late nights.

  
Keith brushes his hair aside, “thank you.”  
  
Lance looks on the cusp of shy and small as he scuffs his feet on the ground, he shrugs hesitantly, “ya know.”  
  
Keith smiles broadly at him, “walk me home.”  
  
“Wait,” Lance pauses, “one more place, it’s almost open now.”  
  
Keith blinks, “more?”  
  
“When I said the whole night, I meant the whole night.” He winks and Keith’s stomach flutters like this boys tongue wasn’t just down his throat and everything was new and fresh and fluttering. He follows him back down the whispering dark roads.


	3. Cat Hair in Your Coffee

They hold hands in the empty streets and Keith really wishes his palms would stop sweating. He bumps up into Lance intermittently, friendly, curious, they don’t talk as they make their way tiredly across town. **  
**

“This place is the best.” Lance announces and Keith steels his hand away to wipe it on his jeans.  
  
“Isn’t everything to you?” He implores, commenting on Lance's boundless enthusiasm for things.  
  
Lance nods, “let’s just said I have great taste.”  
  
Keith puffs his chest out, “you could say that.”  
  
Lance chuckles and points ahead, “The Cafe Cat Company, right up ahead, bakery and coffeehouse.” Keith could see the lights were indeed on, “opens at 4:30 in the morning everyday. You have no idea how many early morning study sessions I’ve had here.”  
  
They stumble into the warm room, smelling of fresh bread and yes, some cat hair.

The cat’s stare languidly up at them like noisy intruders, then go back to napping and flicking their tails up and down. Keith looks around, “it’s cute.”  
  
Lance bumps into him, “You’re cute.”

Keith snorts, “are you always like this, or is it the wine.”  
  
“Little of both.”

Lance orders them two coffees with cream and a muffin to share. Their muffins were apparently huge.

They sit at the little ornate table, too small for most things and Keith feels a stand-offish cat named ‘Red’ jump on his lap.

He pets it absently as he stares at Lance, mesmerizing the sharp jut of his chin and little smirk of his eyes.

“Hey, next year?”  
  
“Yeah?” Lance asks as he rubs his weary eyes.

“Don’t bid on someone else.”  
  
“Oh God, you think I have that type of cash? No way, you were a special case.”  
  
Keith leans over and kisses him fondly, because he could kiss him and got to kiss him, Lance slowly kisses him back with chin dip and a shy smile.  Lance studies him before fetching their orders and placing it down.

"So," Lance hums and leans on his elbow, inching towards Keith, "you never finished telling me about yourself."

Keith rolls his eyes, "I was born at a young age..."

"As a smartass I see!" Lance crows and Keith sips his coffee with an eyebrow raised.

Lance prompts him on, insisting on depth, Keith sighs, "I like...kimchi, and motorcycles, and tea that isn't too hot with some cream." Keith wasn't used to so much attention, he can feel his cheeks heat up under Lance's appraising gaze, "uh, I had a couple foster folks until Shiro's parents took me in. And that was." He smiles into his lap, "nice."

Lance pats his hand and tries to feed him muffin while absorbing Keith's entire history, and Lance nods with an interest that digs at Keith's insides little fireflies lighting up one by one.

"And you?" Keith asks as he finishes the story of his almost expulsion from the fifth grade (the one having to do with fireworks).

"Me?" Lance bats his eyes, "weeeell, my favorite things are hot people, that moment when you crack your back and like 75 bones pop and like, puddles that soak your socks but not your knees and spray every where when you jump in them."

Keith laughs into his drink at how _Lance_ he was, smiles and kisses him on the side of his mouth, wiping his snarky smirk off his face into a pouty 'O' shape. 

They drink the coffee deeply and Lance keeps kicking him gently under the table, until they both start to yawn like they wanted to catch flies in their mouths, Keith hauled Lance to his feet.

"Last fact: I'm exhausted." He admits and tries to angle them towards the door.

"Good." Lance ruffles his hair, "I Iike to know if someone has some endurance before I really start to date them." He winks lewdly, probably expecting Keith to squawk or reel back, Keith makes a bold move instead and slips his hand in Lance's back pocket up against his ass, Lance squeaks and Keith winks back at him.

Lance pushes him through the door with a laugh and they stand in the empty morning streets.

The sun is a syrupy yellow on the horizon that Keith could almost taste as they sway down the cobblestone roads of the sleepy college town. They sneak their way past Keith's dorm managers at the front desk and Lance starts twitching as they reach Keith's door.

They stare at each other momentarily in the sharp florescent of Keith’s hall, holding their breath.

Lance blinks and sticks his hands in his pockets, leaning back and hunching down slightly. “Can I kiss you goodbye?”

Keith shakes his head and corners him against the door, “you are ridiculous.”

"No?" Lance bit his lip nervously, Keith sniffs and gets on his tiptoes.

"Yes."

He kisses him as gently as tissue paper tears or flower petals fall to the earth. They didn’t really have any energy except for something slow and sweet.

Keith leaves him just as Lance leans in for more.

He looks down at his feet, “I’ll plan the next one.”  
  
Lance sprouts an enormous grin, “really?”  
  
Keith kisses his cheek and he can feel Lance’s face be a small furnace under his touch. "Maybe not $200 dollars for your time," He jokes, "...but maybe not the gas station this time around either."

"You can take me to the gas station, I don't care." Lance says as he fidgets back and forth.

Keith knocks him gently an the head, "And I'll hear something other than sweets."

Lance snorts and then nods enthusiastically, "I'll see you then." It was a promise, he waves at him emphatically as Keith slowly closes the door, trying to hide what must be a goofy grin sprouting on his face.

"Goodnight." Lance cheers and seems to blow a kiss to the eye hole.

"Goodnight." He whispers back through the door, trying to steady his rapid-fire heart that was yelling cheers and curses and love songs like it didn't care about prudence or decency. Keith goes to charge his dead phone- plugging it in and immediately texting Shiro about the night. It may have had a couple of exclamation points and a heart.


End file.
